Beyond the Wall of Time Read Online Free PDF Page A

abandon the world to them. It might as well be now as some
     later time.”
    Anomer parroted the argument Phemanderac had offered earlier in the afternoon. The Dhaurian scholar had made an impassioned
     speech on the heels of prevarication from Captain Duon. The captain had been uncertain, not knowing what their next move ought
     to be, and Noetos had decided that for all the man’s courage he would have made a poor leader. By contrast, Phemanderac had
     argued with passion, pointing out how they had been drawn together and outlining what he thought their responsibility to be.
     “We have to face the gods,” he had said, “and help get the world back in order.” If that meant helping to destroy the Son
     and Daughter, so be it. His sentiments had received widespread support from members of each of the three groups.
    Anomer had spoken of sacrifice in the cause of saving the world and, embarrassingly, used Noetos as an example, telling everyone
     how his father had risked his life to save Raceme from the whirlwinds. As one, the travellers had shifted their attention
     to him.
    “I still have my one purpose,” Noetos had told them. “I intend to continue north to Andratan, there to make the Lord of Bhrudwo
     answer for the crimes of his servants, the Neherians and the Recruiters, including those perpetrated on Arathé’s body. More
     than that I will not say, given who might be listening to us.”
    He swung his gaze to the three infected by the voice in their heads to underline his comment. What was the point in discussing
     plans if they could be overheard?
    His two children were talking together, Arathé flapping her hands, Anomer’s head bent next to hers. More secrets, no doubt.
Tell me what you’re saying
! he had demanded, firing the thought at his daughter. She had started, given him a sidelong glance, but said nothing.
    Noetos’s comments had claimed the attention of the Falthans. “Tell us more of these crimes,” Heredrew had asked, his request
     supported by Stella and her guardsman. So Noetos had related the story of the recruitment of his child to Andratan two years
     previously, emphasising it had initially been in line with her will—knowing the oversensitive Falthans were likely to misunderstand
     him—and telling them how she had been treated while training in that dark place. Stella had obviously been shocked when Noetos
     had revealed how Arathé had lost her tongue and the other things that had been done to her in the service of the Recruiters.
     More interesting, however, was Heredrew’s reaction. The man’s face clouded with anger, and his hands clasped and unclasped,
     as though reliving some dreadful experience. Perhaps someone he loved, or even he himself, had suffered at the hands of the
     Undying Man.
    “Stands to reason,” Robal had said when Noetos was finished. “You have a dungeon under your castle, you expect things like
     this to happen. You authorise them, you take part in them. I don’t know why anyone would be surprised at this.”
    A strange thing to say, and Heredrew’s reaction was even stranger. “I doubt even the Lord of Bhrudwo knows everything that
     goes on in his dungeons,” he’d said. “Immortal he may be, but I have never heard it claimed he was omniscient.” Why the man
     defended someone who had obviously done him wrong, Noetos could not say.
    After discussing Arathé’s plight, the Falthans had gone on to argue that they had already made common cause with the Father,
     whom they called the Most High. Here they called on Lenares’ knowledge to supplement their own. The girl explained that her
     numbers had shown her how the Father had been cast down from the House of the Gods by the Son and the Daughter, and that the
     fall had cracked the wall surrounding the world.
    “Each day that passes, the hole in the world gets bigger,” she had told them. “Every thread that is snapped weakens the fabric
     separating the world from the gods and whatever else